I was wondering, how do most of you pronounce the word "Pecan"? This has been a debate in my house since I've met my southern husband. I have noticed that the dictionaries say it can be pronounced either way. So, I have come to understand that it is all in the geographical region. My grandfather (whom is from GA) always told me to pronounce it " pah-kahn". I asked him why, if he was from the south, did he not say "pee-can" like many other southern folk I know. And my dear grandfather, may he rest in peace, replied, "Because, my dear, a "pee-can" is what you keep under your bed in the winter when you have no indoor plumbing!" ye-gods!

Sooo, what do "y'all" say? "pee-can", "pah-kahn", or "pee-kahn"

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.

Aaww, BD, don't feel that way. You were just being honest..and sooo funny (and of course thinking out loud).

Bailey, I must have quarked off into the twilight zone or something- it took me a breif moment to get the "canopy" bit. I have'nt heard that one before. That's a good one.I'm sure my grandfather is laughing somewhere right now. Thanks!

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.

From the big book of beastly mispronunciations, by Charles Harrington Elster:

pican.pi-KAHN (-KAHN) rhyming with John) or pi-KAN (KAN like can)These are the pronunciations most often listed, and sometimes the only ones listed. Older authorities often preferred pi-KAN, but in American speech today there is no doubt that pi-KAHN is the dominant pronunciation, and the four leading American dictionaries all list it first. Other recognized variants, in descending order of frequency listed, include PEE-kan, which the evidence of my ears tells me is chiefly Eastern and which Lass & Lass (1976) prefer, and PEE-kahn, which my ears tell me is chiefly Southern. Don't say (ugh) PEEK-in.

PEE-kahn "chiefly Southern"?? I have only heard that pronunciation when someone who normally says PEE-can is having a conversation about this nut with someone who pronounces it pih-KAHN... it's as if the brain cannot totally switch gears.

I pronounce it pih-KAHN. I bet my sisters pronounce it PEE-can... They both have stronger Southern accents than I do.

Perry, you may be in my town but I have to remember never to play Scrabble witchyew...!

I learnt it as puh-KAHN, with a vague notion that it may have been a variant from the natives where I grew up in PA; but I heard the word in Mississippi, where pecans actually grow and thrive.

I think it's thought of as 'lofty' due to the 'back' A, which we USians associate with British, and by extension haughty uppercrust USians. But southerners, being the people growing and eating pecans, would have much more occasion to use the word, thus the preference for puh-KAHN.